Istanbul Airport

✅ Trip Verified | First of all Turkish Airlines is an airline that most of its customers are transit passengers, and Istanbul Airport, the hub of Turkish Airlines should be more transit-friendly. Most of the shops are high-end shops which an average person would not go in, basic needs such as toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel, deodorant, snacks are not available in this airport. If you're a transit passenger who has a long layover here you'll have to go to a lounge and if you're not flying Star business or Star Gold then you'll have to use the IGA Lounge for a fee which is 59euros, and to be honest this lounge doesn't even deserve 10euros. Food and beverage selections are poor. Amenities used in the lounge are also low quality. And if you want to buy something for your friends there are duty-free shops everywhere but this duty might be one of the most overpriced duty-free you've ever seen in an airport. I've been to many airports as a frequent traveler but this airport is a really weird airport, to be honest. The airport's design is just fantastic but it feels like it's more like a shopping mall with only clothing stores and duty-free. And on my latest flight thankfully I was flying on a star alliance carrier (Turkish airlines) and used my gold status to use the TK lounge which was beyond my expectations. Of course, the airport can get better, but it needs better management and a lot of time.

Not Verified | They have been successful in making it a mall but not an airport sadly! I would rate 1 out of 5. Basic things like charging points, gate screens and free WiFi should be available. Also the lounge points and access were too limited. A place where there are so many flights with layovers. I think basic things should have been taken care off. Indeed a very huge airport but the experience was very sad and tiring. Will not recommend anyone unless they will go explore Istanbul.

✅ Trip Verified | Terrible airport. Apparently it is a silent airport where they don’t have a sign for it. We have missed our flight despite the fact we have checked in 2 hours pre domestic flight only because we thought there’d be an announcement to open or close the gates. They haven't even announced our names. Also it is a lie that the airport is silent as there are announcements for missing kids etc. The internet is rubbish as well. They say this is the best airport, biggest and everything but idiots don’t know big doesn’t get close to being good. For internet you have 1 hour only for which you need to have a mobile phone to get SMS messages and have only couple of hours to use it. So if you are a passenger with a long connection you are screwed. In Dubai, your phone connects without any info needed to be provided to the airport WiFi, you just need to choose it. Also it is super expensive so get ready to pay at least twice high street prices for food.

✅ Trip Verified | Very impressed. Beautiful brand new airport. As of now immense but empty, no facilities, no wifi, no lounge access for members even if willing to pay.

❎ Not Verified | I flew in on a business trip. Was in awe of size: its immense. On arrivals, no wait at passport control. Breezed right through. Long walk and airport felt 'empty' so walk seemed longer. But as more people use it and it grows to its capacity, I think the crowds will make it feel smaller and less empty. The departure area is where you get to see the true beauty of the airport: 1. Large open plan and huge shopping areas. 2. Lots of people in 'Ask me' outfits to get help from. You need it because of its vast size and you don't want to trust signs and go all the way to realize you should have turned 300M meter back. 3. Business class check in area has its own sofa comfort seating. 4. Access to Star Gold lounge was all through frictionless scanning of boarding pass. 5. An amazing race car track. Here are the things that were things they need to fix and fall below the standard of a world class airport: 1. On arrival in the customs area, there is a set of uniformed officers. Opposite them was a pair of civilians. One in a red polo shirt. He asked me to go for secondary screening. That is not an issue. But why is he standing as a civilian with no visible ID. I asked his colleague who they were to be asking this since I see the uniformed people on the right. She produced her id. This is just plain stupid. I am sure there are reasons that they need to be under cover in civilian clothes for catching bad guys. But when you are standing in official capacity, then produce your id. How is an arriving passenger to know that this is not a cab driver that entered the pick-up area and this is not where the receiving area starts? I have never seen this in the 30 cities in different countries I have traveled in the last year. Istanbul airport: have your plain cloth officers stand next to the uniformed ones and have their badges visible. This is not a secret police state where you expect people arriving to obey you just because you have a red polo shirt on. 2. The wifi process in the lounge was a bit convoluted: you scan your boarding pass and it prints a tag with your 'unique' name and password to access the wifi. I am sure they are doing this for some marketing reasons to tie your name to your laptop address to your wifi. But its painful to use the wifi (enter this 'unique' id, and odd ball password). Why have the frictionless entry on the entrance to lounge if you are going to ask the traveler to slow down and spend extra time entering stuff. 3. Signage for lounges is good when you come down the long terminal walk. But its not easy to see where you are supposed to hang a left for the lounges. Had to ask. The only sign thats there is on a tv display at lower level than where you expect to see it (i.e. the other 45 signs that navigate you to the airport). Seems like somebody missed putting an extra sign to 'hang a left' where you would expect to find it and they short cutted by putting a tv display."

Not Verified | Ok seriously the airport is huge and brand new but it is still a construction site. The distances are ridiculously long and has anyone thought about a tram operating inside as an efficient way of travelling between the terminals. There is no public transport to the city. Ataturk airport was much more efficient than this airport in many ways. Since I do not have many options to get to Sultanahmet, I booked a transfer. This was the only upside of this nonsense.

Not Verified | I flew in on a business trip. Was in awe of size: its immense. On arrivals, no wait at passport control. Breezed right through. Long walk and airport felt 'empty' so walk seemed longer. But as more people use it and it grows to its capacity, I think the crowds will make it feel smaller. The departure area is where you get to see the true beauty of the airport: 1) Large open plan and huge shopping areas. 2) Lots of people in 'Ask me' outfits to get help from. You need it because of its vast size and you don't want to trust signs and go all the way to realize you should have turned 300m meter back. 3) Business class check in area has its own sofa comfort seating. 4) Access to Star Gold lounge was all through frictionless scanning of boarding pass. 5) An amazing race car track (picture attached). Here are the things that were things they need to fix and fall below the standard of a world class airport: 1) On arrival in the customs area, there is a set of uniformed officers. Opposite them was a pair of civilians. One in a red polo shirt. He asked me to go for secondary screening. That is not an issue. But why is he standing as a civilian with no visible ID. I asked his colleague who they were to be asking this since I see the uniformed people on the right. She produced her id. This is just plain stupid. I am sure there are reasons that they need to be under cover in civilian clothes for catching bad guys. But when you are standing in official capacity, then produce your id. How is an arriving passenger to know that this is not a cab driver that entered the pick-up area. I have never seen this in the 30 cities in different countries I have traveled in the last year. Istanbul airport: have your plain clothes officers stand next to the uniformed ones and have their badges visible. This is not a secret police state where you expect people arriving to obey you. 2) The wifi process in the Turkish lounge is a bit convoluted: you scan your boarding pass and it prints a tag with your 'unique' name and password to access the wifi. I am sure they are doing this for some marketing reasons to tie your name to your laptop address to your wifi. But its painful to use the wifi (enter this 'unique' id, and odd ball password). Why have the frictionless entry on the entrance to lounge if you are going to ask the traveler to slow down and spend extra time entering stuff. 3) Signage for lounges is good when you come down the long terminal walk. But its not easy to see where you are supposed to hang a left for the lounges. Had to ask. The only sign thats there is on a tv display at lower level than where you expect to see it (i.e. the other 45 signs that navigate you to the airport). Seems like somebody missed putting an extra sign to 'hang a left' where you would expect to find it and they short cutted by putting a tv display.

Not Verified | The new airport is extremely clean, lots of great shops and amenities. It was not overly loud and definitely quite spacious with lots of lounges to spend my (long) transit of 8h. My one major issue is with the internet. I've yet to see any kind of proper international airport without WiFi access. The only way you can access WiFi at the airport is if you have a Turkish number. If you click on the option to access, even though a full list of country codes pops up, you will not get a message on the number you enter. I was only able to get (limited-period) access by basically asking/begging the Starbucks employee because even the WiFi at Starbucks wasn't working! So while I would otherwise give it a 9, the lack of WiFi meant I had to completely waste my 8h transit twiddling my thumbs.

✅ Trip Verified | Airport staff were not friendly. Too long from one gate to another. Gate changes. Confused. Can’t recommend this airport. I was traveling from Chicago to Kathmandu.

Not Verified | This is not an airport, it is just a big shopping mall. Unfortunately, there is only one airport in istanbul and it is Sabiha Gökçen. If you reach an airport from the city in more than two hours, it does not belong to that city. Airports should be designed to access to airplane easily, if you are using this one, prepare to loose more than three hours.